Press Release – Community Waitakere
An initiative that aims to plant more Kauri trees in Auckland schools kicked off last Tuesday.

Tuesday, 17 July was kick-off day for ‘Kids for Kauri’ at Henderson Primary School, with formal speeches, a performance by the whole school, and ceremonial planting of kauri seedlings.

Simon Grant, from Community Waitakere Charitable Trust, describes the Kids for Kauri programme as “a practical way for our youngest people to save our oldest tree.” The pilot programme, run by Community Waitakere Charitable Trust, is being trialled in five primary schools in west Auckland this year, with plans to expand in 2013 if additional support can be found. Simon would love to join forces with more local businesses, adding that “it’s great we already have backing from the Kauri Dieback Management Programme (a partnership between the Ministry of Primary Industries, Department of Conservation, regional councils and tangata whenua in kauri areas) and support from the company Treescape.”

“The majority of the kauri were milled or burnt by early settlers. We now treasure our remaining kauri, but the newly-identified kauri dieback disease is again killing our giants. Thousands of trees are estimated to have died from the disease so far. This risk of losing our kauri motivated Community Waitakere to take action” explains Simon.

Kids for Kauri educators will work with students to plant a kauri grove in each participating school, and teach students to protect their kauri with simple measures- such cleaning shoes before and after visiting kauri. Assistant Principal of Henderson Primary School, Russell French, was excited to have the programme launch at his school, and sees “involving kids as essential in the fight to stop the spread of kauri dieback disease.”Flanshaw Road and Edmonton Primary are among the next schools eagerly waiting for their up-coming kauri planting days.